Theme parks, esports and portals

ABSTRACT

Theme parks host visitors&#39; games, watched by remote viewers (esports). Games are played on visitors&#39; phones. A game can involve searching for clues indoors and outdoors. A game can be played at night for a live daytime audience. Parks have portals simulating sending items between parks. An item is put into a portal, copies appear at other portals. An item is put into a portal, items of other types appear at multiple portals. An item is put into a portal, a copy appears at a randomly picked portal. A portal gets an item representing a young individual (eg. kitten), an item representing an older individual (eg. cat) appears at another portal. Visitors and viewers can join teams. A team can span different parks. A portal can be controlled by a team.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Theme parks and esports.

BACKGROUND

Theme parks have exhibits or themes. These are interactive experiencesfor visitors. Parks struggle to make unique and more memorableexperiences so visitors will keep visiting, as well as having othersvisit the park for the first time. The competition is other parks andother recreational pursuits, including computer games.

A problem a theme park can have is the physical size. There are legallimits on maximum attendance. While the marginal cost of an extravisitor might be small, it is expensive in terms of land and buildingsfor a park to significantly expand its footprint.

Another problem is that visiting a park is too expensive for manypeople. In terms of travel time and accommodation. Or also if the peopleare in less developed countries, with lower incomes compared to theincomes of most visitors.

Esports have become popular. Fans watch players play computer games. Thefans might watch on their own computers (mobile phones, laptops, PCs . .. ) via an aggregated viewing platform like Twitch™. The platform showslive or recorded video of games. The players are playing (or haveplayed) the games. The fans are remote from the players. In general, thefans are also remote from each other. They can be at many differentlocations in the world.

In another esports modality, players and fans are in a stadium. The gameis also broadcast so that fans not in the stadium can watch remotely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a park with a visitor, a viewer and devices.

FIG. 2 is 2 theme parks with visitors.

FIG. 3 is a screen of players to follow, shown to a viewer.

FIG. 4 is 4 theme parks with a game starting in Los Angeles.

FIG. 5 is a visitor sending a message to visitors in other parks.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart to test if a game is to be played in a park.

FIG. 7 shows a viewer trying to pick a park and a game to follow.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of finding the preferred languages that a teamuses.

FIG. 9 is a screen of a tip page seen by a viewer.

FIG. 10 shows a portal in a park.

FIG. 11 shows a Multiplier and Transformer use of portals.

FIG. 12 is an analogy between a transistor and a portal.

FIG. 13 shows the output of a transistor controlling another transistor.

FIG. 14 shows the output of a portal controlling another portal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

What we claim as new and desire to secure by letters patent is set forthin the following claims.

This application references our recent US patent pending, “Linket,esports and a theme park”, filed 18 Dec. 2018, Ser. No. 16/350,658.

We use “visitor” to mean a visitor inside a theme park. And “viewer”will mean a person outside any theme park who interacts remotely withvisitors via a mobile device.

The current application has the following sections:

1] One Theme Park;

2] Two Theme Parks: visitor-visitor interaction;

3] Two Theme Parks: visitor-visitor-viewer;

4] Two Theme Parks: visitor-visitor-2 viewers;

5] Night and Day, Summer and Winter;

6] Handoff from 1 Theme Park to Another;

7] Picking a 2nd Theme Park;

8] Guiding a Viewer to a Team;

9] Portal between 2 Theme Parks;

9.1] Multiplier (Fan out);

9.2] Deleter;

9.3] Transformer;

9.3.A] Aging;

9.3.B] Fountain of Youth;

9.3.C] Gender change;

93.D] Occupation change;

9.4] Randomiser;

9.5] Merger (Fan in);

10] Reification and Anti-Reification;

11] Smart Toy that uses portals;

12] Haunted Houses, Cruise Ships;

1] One Theme Park;

Visitors go thru a theme park and are entertained by one or more themes.See FIG. 1. It shows visitor Drew 101 with his mobile device 102. He isin park 100. Outside the park, is Laura 110 with her device 111, whichcould be mobile or non-mobile. In general, she is not in the same cityas Drew and she does not know him. There could be others with Drew, butfor simplicity, we currently consider only Drew as a visitor.

Near Drew can be cameras 103 and 105. There could be more. These can beemplaced in fixed locations. Some might be attached to moving devices.Drew could be walking, or sitting in a static location. Or in a movingdevice. Drew might appear in the Field of View (FoV) of a camera.

Near Drew can be an electronic screen 104, showing images orinformation. There might be several screens. So far, devices 103-105 canbe considered purely electronic devices.

Near Drew can be an electromechanical fountain 106. As with the camerasand screens, this is controlled by the park. The fountain can be turnedon or off remotely. When running, the volume of water in the jets andthe heights of the jets can also be controlled remotely. Associated withthe fountain might be a loudspeaker playing music, possibly synchronisedwith the height of the jets. There might also be lights of differentcolours shining on or through the fountain. Loudspeaker and lights canalso be remotely controlled.

Device 107 is a chest of drawers. Some or all drawers might be lockedand unlocked remotely. A drawer might have mechanical actuators that canopen and close the drawer. Equivalently, instead of a chest of drawers,there might be a filing cabinet.

Door 108 might be a door that can open and close without manualoperation by Drew. Or it could have a lock that is remotely controlled(in part). One type of door 108 could be a garage or warehouse roll updoor.

Cart 109 can be controlled remotely. It could carry Drew and others.

Another device (not shown) could be a platform that rises or lowers fromthe ground. (This includes a lift.) Or it could be extruded or retractedfrom a wall. It could be an HVAC device, or part of one, that influencestemperature or air flow. It could be a wave generator that affects theflow of water in an aquatic environment. It could be shutters for awindow, that open and close. It could be a window that opens and closes.

The remote influencing of air flow can extend to controlling the rate ofrotation (angular velocity) of a fan.

Another device could control the release of aromas in the vicinity ofDrew. Triggers his olfactory sense.

Another device could be a loudspeaker whose volume or other audioparameter is adjusted. Or whose direction that the speaker is pointed incan be remotely controlled.

Another device might make a change detectable via tactile or hapticmeans by Drew. For example, there might be a panel in a wall that can bepushed in by Drew, where sometimes it is remotely controlled so that itcannot be pushed.

Another device might be a camera whose lens can be adjusted to pan, tiltand zoom. Or it might be a camera that can be moved, like along a rail.

Another device could move on the ground, or on a ceiling or wall. Forexample, it might be a giant spider that crawls along a wall andceiling. Or it might be an elf that walks on the ground.

Another device might be a seat (that Drew sits on) that vibrates.Similar to what some movie theatres have.

Another device could be an enclosure (cage?) that holds a real or fakeanimal, where the enclosure could be opened to release the animal nearDrew.

Another device might be a container holding a clue, perhaps a physicalgadget. The device might open and release the clue depending on actionsby Drew and others. A variant is where the clue is actually a reward(like a stuffed toy or a bottle of wine).

Another device could be a drone. Presenting an outdoors panoramic viewof the park. The drone has a camera (or several). The drone and itscameras can be controlled by the park to focus on various sections.

Another device could be a hologram projector. A remote user couldtemporarily control this to show or not show a hologram to visitors.This can also extend to a remote user being able to control where theprojector is pointing and the spatial location of the hologram.

There could be multiple such devices.

At present some or all of these cases exist. One characteristic is thatthe controlling of the devices by the park is largely based on presetdecisions and perhaps by the actions of the visitors. It can be usefulto the park if the experiences are made more unique. Giving incentivefor visitors to come back for new experiences. But there is anotherissue. Parks have advertising costs for billboards, TV commercials andthe like. In part to sustain brand awareness and to bring in newvisitors.

Our application combines the parks with another recentphenomenon—esports. In the last 10 years it has become clear that peoplewill pay to watch others play computer games. They will pay to watch inperson (in a stadium) and remotely. It is the latter idea that is usedhere. The park uses cameras 103 and 105 to show static images and videoto Laura. It can also use microphones (not shown in FIG. 1) to pick upaudio and transmit to Laura's device. The microphones can be installedby the park in the vicinity of visitors. They can pick up words spokenby the visitors, and audio emitted by the park's loudspeakers.

In terms of visitors' privacy, the park can indicate to visitors thatcertain sections of the park have these cameras and microphones. Andwhen the visitors go there, they consent to such uses.

An elaboration is possible concerning visitors' images. When a camerashows a visitor, it has software doing image recognition to detect this.It can blur the visitor's face. Or it can replace the visitor's face oralso the rest of the visitor by a “skin”—an artificial image. Skins area common concept in gaming, where a player can pick a skin. Those usesare often where the entire environment in the game is artificial. In thepark, the skin can be a software overlay that follows the real personaround in the video.

This can be extended. When Drew entered the area, he can have on hismobile device an app made by the park. The app could use a linket like[Medieval Visitor] if the theme is a medieval village. When Drew clickedthe linket, the app was installed and run on his device. The app couldoffer him a choice of various cartoon personas—traveller, publican,smith, royal lady, barmaid, baker. (The persona he picks could be maleor female.) Then in his wanderings thru the themed area, the videoreplaces him by his persona.

Or Drew downloaded the app without clicking on a linket. The park couldhave used other means to induce him to do this.

The app could let him have a nickname. In addition to his persona name,or in exclusive—or to it. So if there is a persona “Smith” (a metalworker), Drew might be “Wanderer Smith”.

In general the viewer app and visitor app are different. But a parkcould merge both into one app. One consideration is that the visitor appis for a mobile device. The viewer app can have several versions—formobile and fixed devices. Because the viewer can be walking around witha mobile device, or sitting down at a PC, for example.

Laura can remotely see and perhaps hear Drew and others as they progressthru the village. The park can offer different views to Laura. One mightbe a map view, instead of images. The visitors are shown as variousicons. The app can show the various devices in the area. If the area hasa game approach, where the visitors compete to complete tasks, Drew'sand Laura's apps can show the competitors' progress, if this ismeaningful.

The viewer app could let Laura search the visitor data for somecriteria. One is to show any visitors who have their own linkets. Theseusers might be media influencers and could be interesting for Laura tofollow them thru the park.

It is a short conceptual distance to let Drew's visitor app control someof the electromechanical devices. This increases interactivity by him.He is not just passively walking or riding thru a themed area. Forexample, the area could have a room with a locked door. Drew uses hisapp to answer some questions based on what he saw (or did) earlier. Ifcorrect, the door unlocks.

The park can monetize the viewer app by showing ads. These can includeoffers to buy a ticket to the park. Or to other parks owned by the samefirm. With a possible discount as an inducement. If the park hasassociated items for sale, like toys or movies, these can also be shownon the viewer app.

To encourage use of the viewer app, there could be a message board.Current viewers can write messages viewable by all or some viewers. Thisinteractivity improves stickiness of the app.

The viewer app and the visitor app might have the same server.

2] Two Theme Parks: Visitor-Visitor Interaction;

FIG. 2 shows 2 theme parks with visitors in each. Park 100 can be in onelocation, eg. Los Angeles. Park 200 can be in another place, eg.Shanghai. Sue 201 is a visitor in Park 200. She has mobile device 202.As in FIG. 1, Laura 110 is a viewer interacting with Park 100. WhileMike 203 is a viewer with mobile device 204 interacting with Park 200.In general each park will have many visitors and viewers. For simplicityFIG. 2 just shows one visitor and one viewer for each park. Typicallythe parks are owned by the same firm. But this application also includesthe case where each park is owned by a different firm, and the firmscooperate in the manner described in this section.

Drew is going through park 100 in some activity like a scavenger hunt.He is looking for clues, where often each clue leads to another clue. Hemight also be looking for prizes. A clue can point to a prize. SimilarlySue is going through park 200. Suppose the activity or game is the samefor both of them. We will use activity and game interchangeably. Thegame spans both parks. We assume the game is played via the mobiledevices. These might be the personal mobile devices (eg. cellphones)brought into the parks by Drew and Sue. Or they might be mobile devicesloaned by the parks to them. In this case, the devices could be ARheadsets (eg. Microsoft Corp's HoloLens™ or Magic Leap Corp's eponymousdevice).

Suppose the game lets Drew and Sue find each other in instances of thegame on their devices. In general they have never “met” before going tothe parks. Another case is where they knew each other before this, andformed a team that goes to the parks.

The game can be designed to let teams form and cooperate to aid eachother in finding clues and prizes in the parks. Imagine that Drew isnear door 108. But it is closed and locked and he cannot physically orvia his mobile device unlock and open the door. He communicates with Suethrough their game instances on their mobile devices. He passes someinformation about door 108. Sue finds that she can unlock the door onher device. She does so by sending a remote signal from her game. He cannow open the door and walk through the doorway. This assumes the gameserver for both parks can interact with the controls of door 108 toenable the action.

At the simplest level, this shows how members of a team in differentparks can cooperate to solve a problem. It also emphasises the physicalnature of the game experiences. This differs from a game purely playedon electronic screens. It uses the experiential physicality of the parksto enhance the game play. Clearly this example is where Drew undergoesthe physical event. At another time Sue could be in front of a chest ofdrawers like those depicted as item 107. But her chest of drawers is inpark 200. The drawers might be closed and unable to be opened by her.But in the game there is some indication that a player in park 1 mayhave a “key” to open the drawers. She asks Drew. The game lets Drewcheck the status of the drawers in park 2. He finds that he can openthem. He does so by some command in his game instance. One of thedrawers is then operated remotely by electromechanical means to open infront of Sue. Or the drawer might have a status light that turns on, toindicate that Sue can now manually open the drawer. Or Sue's game on herdevice gives a signal that she can open the drawer. This signal could bea combination of visual (graphical) means on her device screen, possiblywith an accompanying audio signal. For example, there might only be anaudio from her device saying “You can now open drawer A in the chest ofdrawers”.

To enhance interactivity across the parks, the game could let Sue andDrew communicate by various means. There could be text messaging betweenthem, in the game. They might be able to talk via the game. They couldtake photos with their mobile devices, in the game, and send these toeach other. Assuming sufficient bandwidth, they might also be able tosend streaming video to each other.

A variant is where the game has different behavior in the parks. Forexample, in park 100, the game can let a user in park 200 remotelycontrol some doors. While in park 200 the game lets a user in park 100remotely control fountains and some windows. Also, there is norequirement that the parks have the same inventory of electromechanicaldevices that are remotely controllable. In part, this might be becauseif the parks might have different sets of themes, where the themes inShanghai were chosen to resonate with Chinese culture, and ditto for thepark in Los Angeles vis a vis US culture.

The above was where a user in one park directly operated a device in theother park. A variant is where when Drew is at door 108, Sue has avirtual key that she passes to Drew's game instance. Drew then has to dosomething with that key on his device in order for the door to open. Hemight have to furnish a second virtual item to be used with the key.

Another variant is reification, where a virtual item is made real.Imagine that Sue finds or captures (the difference is largely a functionof the context of the game) a virtual puppy in her park. She transmitsit to Drew, possibly getting a different virtual item or a creditpayment in some currency. Drew takes himself and his mobile device (onwhich appears the virtual puppy) to a “kennel”. This can be a containerdressed up as a kennel. Drew uses his device to put the kennel in focus.This can be done in various ways. One is for the game to use hisdevice's ability to know its location and orientation (“compass”). Drewbrings the device close to the kennel and points the camera at thekennel. The game uses the location and orientation to indicate by somegraphical or audio means that the device is focused on the kennel. Forexample, it could highlight the kennel in the image. The game transfersthe virtual puppy to the kennel. In programming terms, the game can putan id corresponding to the virtual puppy in the memory area associatedwith the kennel object in park 100. The kennel has a physical door thatopens. It shows a physical toy puppy which Drew can take and keep.

One possibly asymmetry between the parks is that park 100 might have thekennel while park 200 does not. Park 200 could have an equivalentcontainer for releasing physical toy instances of monsters that Sue canget.

Thus far the examples are been of cooperative behavior between membersof a team in different parks. A different example is antagonisticbehavior between members of different teams. Suppose Drew is in one teamand he has members in park 200. Now Sue is not on his team. She mightwant to hinder Drew's progress in getting clues and prizes in park 100.Drew approaches door 108. It is open. He sees via his device screen animage of a virtual prize inside the entrance. But Sue has been(remotely) monitoring door 108. She wants to deny the prize to Drew.Earlier, she obtained the ability in her wanderings to close and lockvarious doors in park 100, including door 108. She closes and locks door108 before Drew gets to it. He cannot unlock the door. It can be seenthat the ability to remotely close and lock a door is easily doable withcurrent technology. Park 100 has done this for door 108 and promulgatedthe ability to players in page 200.

Sue's antagonistic behavior can arise if the game has a common deadline(or equivalent feature like having the highest score) for teams in bothparks to finish their tasks. It is not enough for Sue's team in park 200to be the first team to finish in that park, or to have the highestscore for getting prizes in that park. Her team should also be thehighest across both parks. She has to delay or prevent teams in otherparks from getting clues or prizes.

3] Two Theme Parks: Visitor-Visitor-Viewer;

This section describes a visitor in one park interacting with a visitorin another park and a (remote) viewer. See FIG. 2. The viewer is Laura110, interacting with Drew 100. Ignore Mike 203. Laura can be anywherein the world that has Internet access. She has a mobile device 111, likea cellphone. On her device she is running a game app. This game islikely written by the parks. Her game app is also likely not the same asthe game apps used by the visitors. By not being in a park, she has adifferent experience. Crucially she is unlikely to be able to controlnearby electromechanical devices via her device, or to have such devicesnear her being controlled by other viewers or visitors (in the parks).

One case is where Laura is passive. She is not part of Drew's team but aspectator. Her interaction is limited to (perhaps) being able to sendmessages to Drew and to tip him by donating money or some game currencyto him via her game instance. She represents the esports audience. Shecan follow activity in park 100. Depending on the game, she might alsobe able to follow activity in park 200. For park 100, she can followDrew as he moves thru the park. The game could also let her follow otherplayers. This can be done by her manually controlling the actions on herscreen to move thru the park and try to manually identify a specificplayer. Like current sports TV. But because all players have a mobiledevice with a game instance for that player, the game can easily trackthe players. It can present her with a screen. See FIG. 3. Item 300 is ascreen in her game, listing players in both parks. Drew and Sue areindicated in bold and italic, to mean that Laura picked them. The gamecan automatically follow them. It can show the environment around each.Perhaps as actual video or photos taken from cameras in the park. Orperhaps as symbols on a screen, with other symbols designating clues,prizes or obstacles. The game could also show images from the cameras ofthe visitors, or images from the screens of the visitors' devices. Thelatter images can be quite different from the real world images. Thegame is showing virtual items on the visitors' screen to enhance theirexperiences. When a viewer can see this, it does likewise for her.

A variant is where Laura can only follow players in 1 park. So FIG. 3might only show Drew chosen by her.

Suppose Laura is actively involved in the game. One way is that she ison Drew's team. She can be in a scavenger hunt outside the parks, in anAR-type game. So the overall game splits into at least 2 versions—in andoutside the parks.

If Laura only follows Drew, and is in his team, and he is teamed withSue—then if she needs some virtual items, she can ask Drew. In turn hecan convey this to Laura. In her game outside the parks, she can lookfor the items needed by Sue. If she gets these, she can send them toDrew, who sends them to Sue. This presupposes that the game prohibitsdirect communication between Laura and Sue.

The inclusion of players in 2 (or more) theme parks and an active viewermakes for more gaming possibilities. The needs of 2 visitors for virtualitems increases the chances that when Laura plays her game, she is morelikely to find those items. From a gaming standpoint, if she can getmore items, it can lead to greater satisfaction for her, and increasesthe chances that she will play, and play longer, and play again at alater time.

Or the winning of an overall game could depend on finding virtual itemsin both theme parks and in the outside game played by Laura. The itemswould be made to be different, to ensure the need for players in all 3environments.

A variant is where Laura's remote activity in park 100 is needed byDrew. Her screen shows virtual items, prizes, obstacles or monsters inpark 100 that Drew cannot see on his screen (perhaps until it is toolate). Drew needs Laura to scan or search park 100, maybe around him. IfSue is on Drew's team, the game might not let her do this. Or perhapsSue can in her game only see certain virtual objects in park 100, whileLaura's game lets her see others. This is a means of game design toencourage participation across difference regions.

A variant is where the game is designed so that certainelectromechanical devices in park 100 need to be controlled by Laura, sothat Drew can win virtual or real items. There might be a real boxcontaining a real teddy bear. He needs the bear. But the box can only beunlocked by the viewer Laura, not Drew or Sue.

There could be real boxes with multi virtual keys needed. Such a boxneeds a virtual key found in park 200 and a virtual key found outsidethe parks. This latter case of a key outside the parks can beelaborated. Suppose active viewers are taking part in scavenger huntsoutside the parks. The specific virtual key for the box (which could bereal or virtual) in park 100 might be found only in, say, Canada. SoDrew has to persuade a Canadian viewer to join his team. It is a simplematter in the design and running of the scavenger hunts outside theparks for items or prizes to be distributed in part by a geographic ornational basis.

A variant is where viewer Laura can only do a finite number ofcontrollings of electromechanical devices in the parks. Suppose she can“see” both parks. She helps both Drew and Sue. But she can only control(one at a time) a maximum of 3 devices. The problem is that Drew needs,say, 2 boxes opened. There are real or virtual items in those he mayneed. But some might be useless or worth little. He does not know whatthey are and how much they might be worth in the game. Likewise for Suein park 200. They have to decide which 3 boxes to open, based perhaps onother information about the suspected contents of the boxes. Thisdeliberate game design of a constraint encourages teamwork.

A common theme is that game design can extend the usual benefit of ateam sport. Often a team in real or virtual space has all or mostmembers near each other. Now the team is dispersed in real space.

4] Two Theme Parks: Visitor-Visitor-2 Viewers;

See FIG. 2. Now suppose Laura is following Drew and Mike is followingSue.

The first case is where Laura and Mike are near each other. They aretaking part in the same scavenger hunt organized by the parks, in anarea outside the parks. Suppose they form a team for that game. Eitherby a game requirement or by choice, Laura decided to follow a visitor inpark 100, Drew. And Mike decided to follow a visitor in park 200, Sue.Or the game automatically assigned them Drew and Sue. Laura and Mikeworking in a team outside can let them capture items that an individualcould not. Imagine a game where the “weapons” of 2 players are needed todefeat a given “senior” monster and capture it or a prize it wasdefending. The point is that the viewers do a cooperative behavior togarner a result that a single viewer is unlikely to get.

This item can be sent (or traded) with Drew or Sue. Which to pick can beleft to the game. If Drew and Sue were automatically assigned to Lauraand Mike, it could be because Drew and Sue each needed an item of acertain level or seniority, and the game found that a team of viewerswas playing in a region where they could capture such items. Or, if Drewand Sue picked the visitors, it might be before or after they capturedthe senior item. The game could give a search function to them, to lookfor visitors needing such an item.

Suppose Laura and Mike sent or traded their senior prize to Drew and heuses it, while Sue still needs such a prize. One case is where Laura andMike can go searching around themselves again, to capture a similarprize and send it to Sue. Another case is where when Drew uses theprize, perhaps to get another clue, the prize can be sent to Sue.

Above, we described Laura and Mike picking visitors to team with. Theopposite is possible. Suppose Laura and Mike formed a team. Theyindicate this to the game. Then when Drew started looking for a team, hecould search in the game for viewers, single or already in a team.Various criteria might be possible to search for, and he found andpicked Laura and Mike.

Now suppose Laura and Mike are not near each other. They might beplaying in different regions or countries. When visitor Drew plays, thegame might need him to recruit a viewer in, say, Japan. He searches inthe game and finds Laura. Likewise, Sue, who is not currently in anyteam, might need a teammate in Australia. She searches in the game andfinds Mike. Then by various means and criteria, Drew and Sue merge theirteams. One criterion might be that the overall game wants aninternational cast in a top or winning team. It might not be mandatory,but it could help. Thus a team from China, US, Japan and Australia ismade.

If Laura and Mike are in different regions, they might want to be on thesame team because one criterion for their game is that each find another(active) viewer (player) in a given region. So Laura in Japan is toldthat she needs a viewer in Australia. Mike need not necessarily have theopposite requirement. He might face no regional constraint in what teamhe is in. The main aspect here is that Laura's game does not let hersimply search for viewers in Australia. She has to join with a visitorat a park. This could be to encourage teams to have visitors. It playsto a value add of the theme park. The remotely controllable devices ithas lends to a more real playing experience, compared to a game purelyplayed on electronic screens. This also applies to viewers like Laura.Though she cannot physically see the changes she makes to park machines,simply by being told of it from teammates and from seeing images, videoand audio, it enhances the reality of the game for her.

5] Night and Day, Summer and Winter;

Suppose there are at least 2 theme parks involved in the interactions.One park is currently in daytime, the other is in nighttime. This can beused to play a combined game with a common theme, that uses the outdoorsof the parks and the day and night. The game can also use the indoors ofbuildings in the parks.

An example is a horror theme. Park A is in night time. There are virtualmonsters in the outside: vampires. Players have to dodge them or capturethem. Meanwhile Park B is in daylight. The outdoor monsters are zombies.Players in different parks can pass clues and items to each other. Thisoffers a simulcast total game to viewers. It uses the trope of vampiresbeing unable to be outdoors in daylight.

In this example there might be several “innings”. One inning can be theprevious case. The next inning can be a day or so later, when park A isin daylight and park B is in night time. To reduce any possibledisadvantage (perceived or otherwise) when just playing in daylight ornight time.

Night time play in a park can also be useful if it occurs when the parkis normally closed. All non-playing visitors can be absent and theentire park is available exclusively for the game. This is a time whenthe park is normally not generating revenue. Now audiences may be awakein other parts of the world, providing incentive for such play.

Another scenario is two theme parks, both in daylight or night time. Onepark is in the summer time, the other in winter. Imagine one park in LosAngeles in summer while the other is in Santiago Chile in winter. Thedifferent weather conditions allow for gameplay catering to theseconditions.

A third scenario is two theme parks, one in daylight and the other atnight, where one park is in summer and the other in winter. Imagine onepark in Los Angeles in a summer daytime, and the other park in Sydney ina winter night time.

Note that this section does not need the remote audience of viewers orthat the visitors can manipulate the electromechanical devices in theparks. Though both aspects are possible.

6] Handoff from 1 Theme Park to Another;

Thus far we considered both theme parks to be open at the same time. Adifferent case is when the game ends in one park perhaps because thepark is closing for the day. The game will continue in the other park. Ateam active in the first park can handoff its position to other teammembers in the second park.

See FIG. 2. Suppose at a given time park 200 in Shanghai is open and nowit will close for the day. The team consists of the 4 members shown inFIG. 2. When park 200 was open, the game was only happening in park 200,and the team's members Sue and Mike were active. The team has someassets. Largely these can be virtual. Though there is a case where someassets can be real. Perhaps a computer chip or thumb drive with somedata. Perhaps a real teddy bear. We assume that any real assets are heldby Sue in park 200.

The virtual assets can be stored in the game server's computer, in theteam's account. Some real assets can be effectively transferred frompark 200 to park 100. These assets in park 200 can be stored in someescrow facility controlled by the park. Copies of the assets can be madeor put into another escrow facility in park 100. For a thumb drive orother computer media, the data can be copied from the device in park 200to an equivalent device in park 100. A teddy bear in park 200 can beequated to a teddy bear in park 100. It may be a rule of the game that,say, a visitor must walk around the park carrying a teddy bear. Theparks can ensure that real items like teddy bears have copies in bothparks. This is possible because the real items are found or made in theparks. It is not recommended that the real items are arbitrary itemsbrought into the park by the visitors.

When the team starts up in park 100, park 200 is assumed to be closed,or at least that the team's members in park 200 (Sue) or associated withpark 200 (Mike) are no longer playing. Drew goes to the escrow facilityto physically check out the items from Shanghai. He and Laura have theirvirtual items from Shanghai. The latter can be associated with the teamas a whole. For example, “gold” coins or “health” potions or a “scroll”of wisdom. In this case, if Drew had viewers Laura and Tim (not shown inFIG. 2), then there is no problem about item distribution amongst theteam.

But if some virtual items are associated with one viewer and now thereare 2 viewers, the issue is how to distribute these items between theviewers for Los Angeles. We leave this to the details of specific games,simply specifying here that such issues could arise.

One answer is important and simple to describe. The team members for LosAngeles have leeway to redistribute the virtual items as they see fit,amongst members who will be active. But there may be games that prohibitthis. For example, a game could require that a viewer have at least 1health potion. If Shanghai hands over 1 health potion and there are 2viewers for Los Angeles, 1 viewer will not be in compliance. In turn, asimple answer is that 1 viewer (Tim?) will not be active in that round.Hopefully in future rounds, there will be enough health potions to letTim play.

A related issue is where some virtual items are associated with onevisitor in Shanghai and now there might be 3 visitors in Los Angeles.This can also apply to the real items put into escrow.

Another use of hand off is for a relay type game. A team could have asubset of visitor members in the Los Angeles park. The game ends (fortoday) when the park closes. The team has other visitor members in theShanghai park. These members carry on the game, perhaps against otherteams similarly distributed across the parks. Within the game, each teamcould have a virtual item that acts as a baton, passed from members in 1park to members in another. The baton could be tangible, usingfabricator machines emplaced in each park. So when the Shanghai teamenters the park to start their play, they can go first to the fabricatorand pick up a copy of the baton. A member can then carry this thru thepark when they are playing. Of course, the baton is instantiated in anytangible form that can be replicated in a fabricator. As a matter ofgame play, the tangible baton can be suggested, to make the game morethan just a game played on a computer screen. It plays to the tangiblenature of the park.

7] Picking a 2nd Theme Park;

Suppose a game is initially played in only 1 theme park. It is popularenough that it is desired by the parks or perhaps by the players toincrease the game board (so to speak) to other theme parks. See FIG. 4.The game is currently played only in Los Angeles park 100. It shows 1visitor Drew 101 and his mobile device 102. In general there will beother visitor players in park 100. For simplicity viewers like Laura 110from FIG. 1 are omitted here. But they are also assumed to exist.

There are 3 other parks shown. Shanghai, Tokyo and London. All 4 arepart of a firm. Each park is shown with 1 visitor. This single visitorrepresents 1 or more visitors present in that park. Note that park 200is shown with a visitor Dee 406 and her mobile device 407. Currently thegame is not being played in park 200. Visitor Sue 201 in FIG. 2 does not(yet) exist in FIG. 4. The firm would like more game play.

The first issue is how does the firm detect or define a market demand tospread the use of the game to other parks? The second issue is how topick other parks? Note that the spread of the game is taken to meangrowing the current instance of the game, as opposed to running newindependent instances. Call the game Alpha. Other parks might be runningother games, just not Alpha. The arrow with a question mark from park100 to park 400 is meant to suggest perhaps picking the Tokyo park basedon some criteria.

See FIG. 5. Drew sends a message to others in his social network 501 whoare gamers. The social network in general has servers, websites and appsindependent of the firm. The message can say that if they are in othertheme parks of the firm, to click a link in the message. This can lead,after a few more clicks, to the installing of Alpha on their mobiledevices, with their permission, and if Alpha is not already present. Itcan also cause Alpha to be automatically run, and their instance ofAlpha can interact with Drew's instance. (This method can also be donefor visitors in park 100, to help increase the use of Alpha in park100.) In an earlier U.S. Pat. No. 9,792,101 we described this, with thelink containing a Linket™, an example of which could be [Drew Gamer].The square brackets are simply a choice of delimiters.

An advantage of using the linket is that it avoids 2 manual searches. Ofthe app store for Alpha app. And within Alpha, for Drew. If there aremany gamers currently running Alpha, there can be a long list andscrolling thru it to find Drew can be tedious and error prone. This isalso true of the manual search of the app store for Alpha.

Another method avoids linkets. Other parks could have visitors playingother games. The games are likely all written or vetted by the firm,because these can control the electromechanical devices in the parks.Drew sends a message in Alpha 502 to people 504 he played with in othergames in the past, telling them to run Alpha. This message can have alink autogenerated by the firm, pointing to a server run by the firm,from which they can download Alpha. A boon to the firm for it avoids thefirm paying fees to the app store. Or Drew can send a message to beshown in a bulletin board 503 run by the firm, accessible in those othergames. This message is a broadcast to people he does not know.

Previous methods let customers in other parks boot up Alpha and extendthe game board themselves. This assumes that if a user runs Alpha andAlpha detects (thru geolocation perhaps) that it is in a theme park ofthe firm, then the game can be played. A different method is where thefirm has to approve the use of a park for Alpha to played in it.Consider where Ann 404 in London got a message from Drew or read it on aboard, and she installed Alpha. Her Alpha sees it is not in Los Angeles,which currently is the only approved park to run the park. It tells theserver that a user wants to run Alpha in London. It also tells her thatthis is under review. The server collates requests over a period oftime. It could have a threshold above which it auto-approves the gamefor London.

Or the server could have tests that it applies to a park to approve itfor Alpha. One test has to do with the status of variouselectromechanical devices to be used in Alpha. Some of these might beunder maintenance at a given time. If these are considered essential fora good experience of game play, then the firm could prevent Alpha frombeing run in that park until the devices are available online. Approvalcan also be a function of the number of people in the park and of thenumber of players who signed up to ask for Alpha to be run in the park.There could be tests to anticipate given either or both numbers, whetherthe expected game use has enough operational devices.

Related to this is the possibility that other games (Beta, Gamma, . . .) are currently being played in the other parks, and these games availthemselves of the electromechanical devices in those parks. This can bea factor in deciding whether there is enough spare capacity in the parksto extend Alpha to them.

Concerning the number of people in the park, too many could bedetrimental to some games that are scavenger hunt-like in the open areasof the park. It can be clumsy for players to move near and aroundnon-players. It can be that, for example, during a public holiday wheremany more visitors are expected, for the firm to deprecate the playingof some games at a park in that nation.

There could be various other tests for approval. Several are listedbelow, but are not intended to be exhaustive.

One. The weather in the park. The park might still be open, but heavyrain or hail, say, could lessen an outdoor experience, if Alpha hasoutdoor game play. Or even indoor experiences, if users have to traversethe outdoors.

Two. The time remaining in the park till closure, assuming players ofAlpha would not be allowed in the park after closure. Earlier we wroteof a park being used after hours for gaming. But that does not have tobe for every game. If the park would close in an hour, this could bejudged as insufficient time for a good game experience with Alpha.Three. The time remaining for daylight, if Alpha is meant to be playedoutdoors during daytime, even if the park continues to be open aftersunset. If Alpha is mostly or entirely played indoors or if Alpha can beplayed at night, this test can be skipped.Four. The time remaining before an eclipse starts or before it ends. Fora game very focused on outdoor game play before or during the eclipse.For games that do not use an eclipse, this test would be skipped.Five. The time remaining before fireworks start or before they end. Fora game that uses play before or during fireworks.Six. The time remaining before a parade starts or before it ends. For agame that uses play before or during the parade.

FIG. 6 summarises several of the above tests in a flow chart.

Above was described how a gamer Drew in a park can send messages toothers, or to a bulletin board for another park. The firm itself canwrite messages to the board, in addition to letting garners do so. Allmessages to a board for a given park can first be filtered by the abovetests about whether to open a game for a park. If the tests say no, thenthe message will not be shown on the board, to prevent an unnecessarycase of users in that park reading it, clicking yes, and then havingtheir request denied.

While this section has concerned itself with how to go from a gameplayed in 1 theme park to a second park, much of the methods clearlyapply if, say, the game is played in 2 parks and should be extended to athird or more park.

Also, the above was for games where a team could have visitor members inseveral parks.

But it also applies to where some or all teams have visitor members inthe same park.

8] Guiding a Viewer to a Team;

Suppose a game is being played in several parks. FIG. 7 shows the gamein 4 parks. A viewer Nancy 701 uses a viewing app for the parks. Thiscan be for her mobile device 702 or for a non-mobile device (not shown).The latter is possible because since she is remote, she might be sittingat a desk by a PC or laptop or other such device, whereas visitors tothe park are mobile in the park and likely to be able to carry onlylightweight mobile devices. The app is connected to the game server (orservers), so it has access to data about the players.

There might be hundreds of visitor players active at this moment. Whoshould Nancy watch?

Assume for simplicity that there are no other games being played in theparks. The viewing app, which is equivalent to the game, can recommendto Nancy which team or player within a team to follow. Of course, thegame can simply show symbols for all 4 parks and let her pick a park andthence show the teams in that park, so that she can pick one (or more)to follow. Different teams or players can have different numbers ofviewers who are just passively watching. The app can show theteams/players with the most such followers by default.

If Nancy has previously followed any of the current players, then thegame can have an option to show these, letting her pick between them.

Or the app can make suggestions based on other data.

One possibility is to use any knowledge the game has of Nancy's languageor location. If she is coming from a network address in China, it mightsuggest following Dee 406 in Shanghai. (Ignore for the moment that Dee'sother team members could be in other parks.) This also has the advantageof minimizing latency between Nancy and Dee. But the game can go beyonda simple use of mapping a network or physical location to a language.Existing teams can message each other in the visitor app. Likewise theyare likely also can get and send messages to viewers who are part of theteam, and viewers who are passive watchers. The messages can be invarious languages. There can be a hierarchy of languages for a giventeam, based on a hierarchy of messages.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of how to find the most common languages that ateam uses. The most important messages are those going between teammembers who are visitors; ie. actually present in the parks. See item801.

The second most important messages are those between visitors andviewers who are part of the team. See item 802.

The third most important messages are those between visitors andwatchers (passive viewers). See item 803.

The fourth most important messages are those between active viewers andpassive viewers. See item 804.

In some implementations of deciding the language, the third and fourthcategories might be merged into one.

Item 805 depicts how the numbers of each language in the earlier stepsmight be weighted and then summed to find, say, the top 3 languages usedby the team. The weights could be chosen by methods external to thissubmission. Perhaps by AI or some neural network. All the steps in FIG.8 are with respect to a team.

Suppose for a given team its languages are in descending order: Korean,Mandarin and English, with some weights attached to each. And supposethe game knows from Nancy's previous history that her preferred languageis Korean. The game does this for all or most of the teams. For Nancy,it can then default to showing teams who mostly use Korean, which wouldinclude that example team.

It encourages Nancy to interact easily with teams, increasing the chancethat she will spend more time watching the game.

One variant is where a team tells the game that it prefers to interactwith watchers in a given language. It might assign one of its members tomessage watchers in that language, for example. The game can choose toignore FIG. 8 and use the team's suggested language. Watchers are vital,because ultimately they might provide much or most of the revenue forthe game.

A variant is where the game knows that Nancy tends to tip teams that shemessages in, say, Vietnamese. A team could have an option to say that itwants watchers who tip in that language, where presumably at least oneof their members can write in that language. This specific request fromthe team could be the main or only criterion for determining the team'slanguage.

Another issue is where is a team since it can have members in severalparks, and its viewer members can be anywhere. It might be expected thatmost teams will have a geographic preference, and specifically that mostteams will have most members in 1 or 2 parks. Thus once teams' languageshave been found to include those likely to be favored by Nancy, the gamecan order the teams in a list presented to her, sorted by, say,proximity of the visitors in the team to her. This does not use thelocations of the active viewers in the team. A variant is to also usethe locations of the latter in finding an “average” location of theteam.

Thus far this section was about a viewer who is passively watching.Another case is where a viewer wants to join a team as an active player.Much of the above discussion about finding the languages of the teamapply. The issue above about a team looking for passive viewers known totip can be germane. Imagine a team with celebrity players who arevisitors in the parks. They derive revenue by announcing through thegame or externally through social media, that they are willing to haveteam members who are active viewers. And that one way to do so is to usethe tip mechanism (assuming the game has this) to effectively bid to beaccepted as an active viewer.

The game could have a mechanism to let existing team members restrictthe number of active viewers in the team, and to pick those by somemeans from a list of applicants in the game. Those applicants couldvoluntarily tip the team. A simple case is where the applicants who madethe largest tips are accepted into the team, up to some limit of suchplayers. FIG. 9 shows screen 901 seen by a viewer on her computer. Itshows the title—where she previously picked a team called Sleevers totip. There is a box where she can input an amount, shown as $20 here.The example uses dollars. But it could be in any national currency or inan artificial currency used by the game or the firm that runs the themeparks. There is a box filled with an X, which means that she wants tojoin the team. The context is that she is a viewer, outside the parks.

Implicitly when she brought up screen 901 in her game viewer app, thegame server has a record of whether she is already a member of anotherteam. If so, it is likely that the server will not let her join anotherteam. Going further, to reduce cheating, the server could also test ifshe has been a member of another team, and if so, to not show screen901. This prevents her from joining that other team and resigning to tryto sign up with Sleevers and pass information back to the other team.

Elaborations of screen 901 and the associated game logic are possible.For example, if she picked the box (as shown here), the amount shetipped might be held in escrow by the server. If the team accepts her,the amount is paid to the team. Otherwise the money is returned to her.

Why would viewers pay (tip) to be on the team? Reflected glory. Akin tohow in the real world celebrity golfers can make a living by chargingpeople for a game of golf. The average person who pays does not expectto win so much as to have the social experience of interacting with acelebrity.

The team could also specify explicitly that it is looking for an activeviewer, who knows a language (or several).

9] Portal Between 2 Theme Parks;

In theoretical physics, a portal (or wormhole) is a postulatedconnection between 2 locations. The idea has spread to science fictionand movies, making the word a trope or meme. A firm running theme parkscan exploit this by having electromechanical devices at each park actingas portals.

The portal can be used to “send” tangible physical items to a portal inanother park. These items can be constrained by the parks to be forexample plush toys found or captured during a team's activity in a park.See FIG. 10. Item 1001 is a portal device in park 100. It has a controlpanel with button 1002, send, and button 1003 to designate which otherpark to send the item to. Here it is depicted as sending to Shanghaipark. Item 1004 can be a horizontal circular panel on which a physicalitem (the toy) is placed. Or 1004 can be a hole into which the item isput. If the former, then when the send is pushed, the item disappearsinto the bulk of the device.

Button 11003 can be a menu listing other parks. In this example, whensend is pressed, suppose a team puts a toy dog Model 15 into the portal.The portal detects the type of item put into it by various means. Sincethe parks likely decide and provide the items, those can havetransponders embedded which indicate what the item is. The portal sendsa signal to park server 1005. This analyses and sends a signal to itscounterpart, the Shanghai park server 1006 in Shanghai. Between theseservers might be other servers, including perhaps a master game serverthat tracks the state of the game. The Shanghai park server 1006 sends asignal to the park's portal 1007, which ejects toy dog Model 15. Thisassumes that portal 1007 has sufficient quantities of items on hand tofulfill the action and other similar actions.

There are elaborations on this. First, a park might have severalportals. A portal could be dedicated to only send items, and anotherportal is only for receiving items. A park can have multiple sendingportals and multiple receiving portals.

The control panel can let the sender Amy pick a particular receivingportal at the other park. This can be so that she can use the game appto tell a team member in Shanghai which portal to go to. Depending onthe game, there might be a means at the Shanghai portal to ensure thatwhoever gets the item is on her team. At the simplest level, this mightbe a park employee who is told by the game the name of her team or thename of the team member to give the item to. Or the Shanghai portalcould be physically configured so that when the item is visible, it isnot yet accessible (eg. behind a glass barrier). Her team member has todo some action with his mobile device so that the barrier will open. Oneway is that when Amy sent the item, she did some action with her mobiledevice that indicated that an item is being sent to Shanghai and alsoprovides her team id. Her team member approaches the Shanghai portal,presses a button in his game that gives the team id along with thecontext that he wants to pick up an item (from Los Angeles). The gameserver in Shanghai gets this, possibly along with his coordinatesshowing that he is near the portal. The server tells the portal torelease the item.

There are numerous other ways this can be done. A portal might have amethod specific to the country or region it is in. For example in ChinaQR codes are heavily used. A Shanghai portal could have a screen showinga QR code. Her team member scans it while running the game. The datadecoded is used by his game instance to contact the game server. Thelatter already knows his team id. And it knows to high confidence thathe is near the portal, because he was able to scan the barcode. So itreleases the item. The game can periodically vary the data in thebarcode, and thus the barcode, to ensure that someone copying thebarcode cannot use it later. The variable data in the barcode can be arandom value that is used only for this purpose.

The send button in the figure might be omitted. The portal could take achoice of a destination portal as sufficient command to “send” the itemto that portal.

Suppose Shanghai park is currently closed. The command to send can bebatched so that at some time when Shanghai is open, a copy of the itemwill appear at the portal for her team member to pick up.

In one mode of game play, it could suffice that the player in LosAngeles merely send the item to another specific park, withoutnecessarily needing a team member to pick it up there. Imagine a plotwhere an item is a “hot potato”—an undesirable item that should beevicted to another place promptly.

The physical nature of the interaction steps in sending the item thruthe portal can help enhance the overall experience. This includes havingthe player press physical keys in a control panel of the portal, asopposed to pressing virtual keys on his mobile device screen.

The portals can have audio and video embellishments to enhance gameplay. A portal could require extra steps for the user to do in order tosend or get an item.

A portal for sending can do double duty by also permitting sending forvirtual items held by a team in the park. While the game can be writtenso that the virtual items could be sent just in the player's mobiledevice, having the method to sending the virtual items conform to somephysical steps, at a physical portal device can also improve the gameplay.

Above we described a portal sending 1 item thru a portal and 1 copy ofit appears at another portal. There are other templates.

9.1] Multiplier (Fan Out);

A player sends 1 item to a portal, 2 copies of the item emerge. This hasthe subcases of:

A] the 2 items emerge at the same portal in another park.

B] the items emerge at different portals in the other park.

C] 1 item emerges at 1 park, another emerges at a different park.

This can obviously be generalised to more than 2 copies.

9.2] Deleter;

A player sends 1 item into a portal. Nothing emerges at the destination.

A] The original item is returned at the sending portal.

B] The original item is not returned.

9.3] Transformer;

A player sends 1 item. An item of a different type or identificationemerges at another portal. For example, she sends a toy puppy. A toygiraffe emerges elsewhere. Here the choice of different type is made bythe sender.

This has important subcases.

A] Aging. A player sends a toy puppy. A toy adult dog emerges at anotherportal. Restated, the input is an item representing an organism of agiven species and young. The output is an item of the same species andolder.

B] Fountain of youth. A player sends a toy cat. A toy kitten mergeselsewhere.

C] Gender change. A player sends a toy lioness. A toy lion emerges atanother portal. Restated—the input is an item representing an organismof a given species and gender. The output is an item representing anorganism of the same species but different gender.D] Occupation change. The input can be a toy of a male firefighter. Theoutput can be a toy of a male police officer. Restated, the input is anitem representing a person in a first profession. The output is an itemrepresenting a person in a second profession.

The gender change can be combined with the aging or fountain of youth.For example, a toy girl can be input and a man can be output from thedestination portal.

9.4] Randomiser;

A player sends an item. A different randomly chosen item appears atanother portal. The ‘chosen’ refers to the game server doing the(random) picking.

9.5] Merger (Fan in);

Two items go into portals, 1 emerges at a portal.

A] The input items go to the same portal.

B] The input items go to different portals in the same park.

C] The input items go to portals in different parks.

D] The item that emerges does so at an input portal.

E] The item that emerges does so at a portal different from the inputportals.

The above choices fall into 2 groups. A, B and C are one group. D and Eare another.

With the above templates, what control the sender or more broadly herteam has over where an item can appear and what form it takes isfunction of the rules of a given game.

These variants can be combined to add to the game play. FIG. 11 shows akitten going into a portal in Los Angeles (item 100) and emerging at acat in Tokyo (item 400) and as a goat in Shanghai (item 200). Acombination of Multiplier and Transformer.

There is an extra important element. FIG. 12 shows a comparison betweena transistor 1201 and portal 1001. A reader with a background inelectrical engineering or computer science should recognise the source,drain and gate of the transistor. Current flows from the source to thedrain, under the control of a signal (voltage) at the gate. It is only asmall exaggeration that most digital computing builds atop transistor1201. The gate is the control, upon which much control logic can beused. Compare this to portal 1001. There is an input of an item (real orvirtual). Output appears at 1 or more portals. The control element ofthe portal acts at the gate of a transistor. Thus above we referred to aMultiplier as fan out, and a Merger as fan in. The portals also have theequivalent of a mux (multiplexer). Imagine an event consisting of aplayer putting an item into 1 portal, another player doing likewise atanother portal, and a third player at a third portal. These events couldbe coordinated to happen within seconds of each other, via the games ontheir devices. (The players need not be on the same team). Logic on thegame server decides which one of these items is chosen to be sent to afourth portal. In all essential ways this is the operation of a mux.

Another example is how the output (drain) of a transistor can controlanother transistor. FIG. 13 shows this. Similarly FIG. 14 shows portal1001 accepting an input of a teddy bear EXOR a kitten. The result ofthis is sent to the controls of portal 1041, which might be in adifferent park. 1401 gets a goat as input. If 1001 got a teddy bear,then 1401 will send the goat to Shanghai. But if 1001 got a kitten, then1401 will send the goat to Tokyo. Note that 1401 does NOT need to ejecta teddy bear or kitten. But if 1401 has a screen, it might display animage of the item it got from 1001.

We suggest that FIGS. 13 and 14 are essentially the same in the contextof this application.

We do not suggest that every basic electrical transistor circuit has aportal analog. But we hope that the above comparisons demonstrate howintricacies can be added to a game than spans several parks.

There are broadly 2 approaches to using portals. One is to let all theabove template modes of a portal be available to every player who is atthe portal.

This is also equivalent to letting the player make those choices via hermobile device instead of thru buttons and other controls that arephysically part of the portal. The other approach centralizes thecontrol at the portals and lets other players alter those controls.

For the latter, imagine that a portal can be flipped from sending onlyto receiving only to bidirectional. Further, this transmission mode canbe controlled by a player or by the game server. Some portals mightalways be controllable by players, while other portals are alwayscontrolled by the game server. Or for a given portal, sometimes playerscontrol its mode while other times the game server does so. But thiscould in turn be altered via higher game logic.

Another issue is that in the parks several games could runsimultaneously. For 1 game, a given portal might be send only. Foranother game, that portal can be bidirectional.

10] Reification and Anti-Reification;

A virtual item can be sent to a portal. The item exists only in the gameserver and as images on the computer screens of the visitors andviewers. When the virtual item is sent to the portal, this can be bysimilar means to a real item. Except that, for example, the visitorguides his phone near the portal, and can capture the image of theportal on his screen. Then via the game app, he picks a button on hisscreen to send the item to the portal. Other steps can be done to sendit to a destination portal. Perhaps using a combination of steps on hisdevice and the physical buttons of the portal.

At the destination portal a copy of the virtual item can be availablefor capture by a nearby visitor. The portal could show an image of theitem on a screen, to aid the visitor. But another mode is reification.The portal converts the virtual item to a real item. The latter can looksimilar to the virtual item at the other park. Or it could look verydifferent.

As with the Transformer, a reification can be done to make multipleitems at 1 or more destination portals.

The inverse process of anti-reification is also possible. A visitorbrings a real item to the transmission portal, as described earlier. Nowthe destination portal emits a virtual item. This can be a virtual copyof the real item, or a virtual representation of a different entity. Thereal item at the transmission portal can perhaps be reused as a freshitem later by another team.

11] Smart Toy that Uses Portals;

So far, the item (eg a toy) that goes into and comes out of a portal isessentially an inert object, with the possible exception of having atransponder or similar embedded device. This section considers when theitem is what we term a Smart Toy. It does not have to be a toy, butgiven the recreational nature of the park, this is likely to be a commoncase. The Smart Toy can record various types of data—images, video,audio, geolocations, accelerations etc. These can be used as a record ofwhere it has been. It can also record what clues or rewards or monstershave been captured during its tour of a park, while being carried ortowed or pushed by players. In general, the Toy does not have to be selfpropelled. When the players find a clue (etc), they might control theToy in such a way so that it takes a photo of the clue, say, as a markerof their achievement. For example, if it is a teddy bear, they couldpoint the eyes at the clue and squeeze the bear, triggering the takingof a photo, likely along with the coordinates being automaticallyrecorded also.

The Toy could be directed by internal logic and possibly be under theactive command of the park game server. The Toy could be able to conveyto the team that is carrying it hints about what to do next.

At the start of the game, Toys might be handed out to each team. Or ateam might chance upon a Toy during its wanderings. In this case, thegame could define the Toy as a high value item.

The Toy might direct the team to take it to a portal. At which the Toycould interact wirelessly with the portal to tell it the destinationportal. So the person carrying the Toy might only have to put the Toy onthe portal, without pushing any buttons. Though game play mightdeliberately interpose extra steps for the team to do at the portal.

“Inside” the portal, the Toy can download its data wirelessly to theportal. Or it could have already done this during its journey thru thepark. But perhaps due to the volume of data collected, and the range ofthe wireless transmitter in the Toy, it might be more feasible todownload whilst in the portal, where there can be a transmitter veryclose by. The game server sends the downloaded data to the destinationportal. At the latter, the data is copied into another Smart Toy. Thereis no requirement in general that the new Toy be the same type of toy asin the previous park. This Toy can now be reused by other teams whoperhaps are sending a Toy from another portal to the current portal.

When a portal holding a deposited Toy gets the downloaded data, this canbe copied to the park game server, giving a backup of the Toy in case itgets damaged during activities.

The Toy could be controlled by different teams in different parks. Avariant is for the Toy to be controlled exclusively by (remote) viewerswho are not part of any team. This lets some members of the remoteaudience take an active role in the game. The game could define how theviewer team can compete prize-wise vis a vis regular teams with visitors(and some viewers). For example, a regular team that helps carry the Toythru a park might split the points (“gold coins”, “credits” etc) 50-50with the pure viewer team.

The game could let pure viewer teams compete against each other in aseparate category from other teams. Aside from the points splitting,this can let the regular teams aid the Toys with no conflict ofinterest. The game can make available clues and prizes only visible onthe screens of the viewer devices. The Toy teams might also get accessto maps of several parks, with clues. Used this way, Toy teamsameliorate a potential problem. Most teams with visitors are likely tohave all the visitors in 1 park by reasons of geography and language. Toencourage a global game across several parks, the Toy teams have to takea broader view, even if they also are likely to be mostly made of peoplenear each other or speaking the same language.

A Toy could have a linket like [Imperial Teddy]. For viewers, they mightsearch online for that linket. A result can be a webpage with the linketclickable. And clicking it in a viewer's mobile device leads to theinstalling and running of a viewer app written by the parks. It can bethat different parks use different apps. But using the same linket for atravelling device lets this be easily handled. A viewer who clicks thelinket gets the app appropriate to the park the Toy is currently in. Insome parks, the teddy might not be a teddy bear. In Tokyo park it couldbe a travelling bushido warrior, and in Los Angeles, it could be acowboy.

The firm could implement for example an AI program that runs the Toylinket. This interacts with the players carrying the Toy and with theviewers. The program can be regarded as a chatbot. This applicationmakes no distinction between an AI program and a chatbot. The programimbues the Toy with a personality that can converse perhaps via textwith viewers. This can be useful in attracting and keeping a vieweraudience. The program can take on a different personality in differentparks to reflect the instantiation of the Toy in those parks. Also theprogram can have the ability to interact with many viewers in aseemingly personal and unique manner with each.

Earlier we described how a Toy could be controlled by a team madeentirely of viewers. The Toy can have both the team and the AI program.The program could advise the team on what to do.

The use of an AI program for a Toy also applies to the portals. A portalcan have a linket and an AI program or chatbot. Fans of the portal whoare viewers can ask it about events that happened involving it. Theportal can tell them what teams brought items to it and what those itemswere. Or for a destination portal, similar information. A portal's appcan be different from the apps used by the Toys or other entities orpeople in the parks.

Another gamification aspect is to let a team of humans control a portal.They can decide within limits set by the game how to run the portal.This includes what if any to charge users. And whether the users' wishesas to destination portals and what operations on the transported itemsbe done or amended or rejected.

12] Haunted Houses, Cruise Ships;

Thus far we described a plurality of theme parks. A variant can be aplurality of locations, each location having at least 1 portal, wherethe portal is for sending or receiving items from other portals in thesense of the previous sections. One case is where the locations arehaunted houses for Halloween or New Year's Eve. A location might nothave any other electromechanical devices controllable by the visitors orremote viewers. Nor is the use of the viewers a necessity. Somelocations could be regular public parks with the addition of portals.The activities can still be essentially scavenger hunts.

Another case is where the locations are cruise ships. Collectively theships are all owned by the same firm.

A group of locations could have various types. Some locations arehaunted houses, others are cruise ships etc.

I claim:
 1. A system of two or more theme parks; the parks running agame server serving a game played by visitors using mobile devices; eachpark having a transmission portal accepting as input a first item put bya first visitor via one of a) onto, b) in, c) near the transmissionportal; the transmission portal accepting a first command from the firstvisitor indicating a first destination portal; the transmission portalbeing in a first theme park; the first destination portal being in asecond theme park; the first theme park being different from the secondtheme park; the transmission portal determining an identification of thefirst item; the transmission portal sending a second command to the gameserver; the second command containing the identification and an addressof the first destination portal; the game server contacting the firstdestination portal; the first destination portal making a second itemaccessible for the taking by a second visitor near the first destinationportal; where the second item is a different type than the first item;where the first item was carried through the park by one or morevisitors prior to arrival at the transmission portal; where the firstitem has sensors that collected data; where the transmission portalcopies data from the first item; where the data is transmitted to thefirst destination portal; and where the first destination portaldownloads the data to the second item.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherethe game server chooses the second item randomly from a set of items,where a chosen second item is of a different type than the first item.3. The system of claim 1, where the first item represents a youngorganism; where the second item represents an older organism of the samespecies as the young organism.
 4. The system of claim 1, where the firstitem represents an old organism; where the second item represents ayoung organism of the same species as the old organism.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, where the first item represents a first organism of a specificgender; where the second item represents a second organism of the samespecies as the first organism, and has a different gender than the firstorganism.
 6. The system of claim 1, where the first item depicts aperson of a first profession; where the second item depicts a person ofa second profession.
 7. The system of claim 1, where the transmissionportal accepts a third command from the first visitor indicating asecond destination portal; the second destination portal being in athird theme park; the second command being extended to containing anaddress of the second destination portal; the game server contacting thesecond destination portal; the second destination portal making a thirditem accessible for the taking by the second visitor near the seconddestination portal.
 8. The system of claim 7, where the third item is acopy of the second item.
 9. The system of claim 7, where the first item,the second item and the third items have mutually differentidentifications.
 10. The system of claim 1, where a mobile viewingapplication is used by viewers outside the parks to watch and interactwith the visitors.
 11. The system of claim 1, where the sensors have oneor more of a) audio, b) video, c) location, d) orientation data acquiredduring the passage of the first item through the park.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, where the visitors who carry the first item are in a same teamas the visitors who carry the second item.
 13. The system of claim 1,where the visitors who carry the first item are in a different team fromthe visitors who carry the second item.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherea team of viewers is associated with the first item and the second item;where the team of viewers is different from a team of visitors whocarried the first item, and different from a team of visitors whocarried the second item.
 15. The system of claim 1, where the first itemand the second item are tangible objects.
 16. The system of claim 1,where the first item is a tangible object; where the second item is avirtual object.
 17. The system of claim 1, where the first item is avirtual object; where the second item is a tangible object.